Widespread use of mobile devices has made them an indispensable tool to businesses and individuals alike. Many individuals carry their mobile devices almost everywhere they go just in case they need to make a call. As a result, friends and colleagues have come to reasonably expect they can get a hold of each other almost immediately with a single phone call.
Mobile devices with multimedia data capabilities have created an explosion in the creation and playback of sound, images and video. High-resolution cameras and sound recorders on these mobile devices have enabled people to capture high quality images and videos of personal events, news events and other events as they occur. Due to the high-resolution cameras and sound recorders on these mobile devices, interactive applications on the mobile devices allow for video conferencing between users of mobile devices.
Interactive applications such as video conferencing application require high throughput and low delay to provide an enjoyable experience. However, cellular networks have link speeds that can change dramatically over time. Current communication protocols cannot adapt to the changing link speeds and typically build up multi-second queues in the cellular network thereby resulting in poor video conferencing quality.